Melao!: The Couple Bringing Cuban Food to Indianapolis

Along the historic West Main Street in Greenwood, Indiana, sits the city’s newest coffee shop, Melao! Cuban Cafe. Inside the white brick building, patrons can snag a taste of Cuba without ever leaving the state, thanks to husband-wife duo Oscar and Sandra Canizares. 

Melao! opened to the community in May 2026, and has been introducing the community to Cuban coffee and bites ever since. Its menu currently boasts a variety of traditional dishes, such as a Cuban sandwich, empanadas, and various pastries. Its menu also has a variety of milkshakes, lattes and drop coffee. 

The shop sources traditional Cuban coffee from Key West, Florida, too. 

“We even have some items on the menu that create a fusion of Cuban cuisine with more traditional American food,” said Oscar Canizares, co-owner of Melao! Cuban Cafe. “Like right now for the fall season, we are offering something that is in a pie crust. It is filled with arroz con leche. Arroz con leche is a traditional Cuban dessert but even in those cases we try to play around with some concepts that are well known for the American public.”

Owners Oscar and Sandra are not cafe owners by trade; rather, they’re musicians who moved their family to the United States eight years ago. Ultimately, they settled in Bloomington, Indiana, before relocating to Greenwood to accommodate Sandra’s new job as a music director at a local church. 

Their decision to open a Cuban cafe was inspired largely by their inability to find authentic Cuban food when they first moved to the United States. 

“We lived for three years in Bloomington,” Oscar said. “Bloomington has a really diverse food scene but even in Bloomington, we couldn’t find authentic Cuban food. We always had that in the back of our minds, like if one day we can be the ones creating a Cuban food space. A year ago we saw the opportunity with this little building in downtown Greenwood. We thought maybe this is the right time to do it. That’s how we started this adventure.”

As the Canizares’ started building out their cafe, one aspect they’ve been intentional about since the beginning is ensuring hospitality and that customers feel welcome in a warm atmosphere. 

One aspect that surprised them is the popularity of iced coffee and lattes and how different it is from Cuban coffee. 

“What makes the Cuban culture different,  it is not just the roast or the levels of caffeine,” Oscar said. “It’s the culture of drinking coffee. When we came to the states, we discovered that here, coffee is like a flavor. In Cuba, coffee is the main part of the drink and we never knew, for example, about iced coffee or iced lattes. In Cuba, we were used to hot drinks, hot cafe con leche, like what we drink in the morning for breakfast. It’s not just about the drinks or the way we drink, but the moments of the day, the social function of those coffee drinks.” 

As Melao! closes in on almost six months in business, Oscar and Sandra have felt the warm welcome the community has extended to them. 

“We have felt the support of the community in general but specifically from my former colleagues and people from our church,” he said. “We feel like the community has embraced us. It’s been really amazing.” 

Melao! Cuban Cafe is located at 211 W. Main St. in Greenwood, Indiana.